Nativity

“Behind flag controversy at Worcester school, a debate about Catholic identity” is a Boston Globe Friday article by columnist Alexander Thompson.  It read: “Behind penalty over flags, school stays its course – Nativity, in Worcester, says symbols of inclusion are a key part of Catholicism, even though the bishop [Robert J. McManus] disagrees.” Many of us may remember that in June Bishop McManus of the Diocese of Worcester stripped the all-boys middle school of its right to call itself Catholic over its refusal to take down the flags, which McManus said promoted political messages contrary to Catholic teaching. He also barred the school from celebrating Mass and the sacraments.  The school flew, and continues to do so, Pride and Black Lives Matter flags.  

I consider this bishop’s action to be a perfect example of “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.”  For most Catholics and non-Catholics alike this decision with its resulting conflict and division will continue to blacken the Church’s image and raise legitimate questions about a punishing Church evidenced by McManus’ stripping the school of Mass celebration and the sacraments.  What an ill-advised penalty, in my opinion! 

According to the Globe article, “In defending his decision, McManus said this week that he was following new guidelines on the identity of Catholic educational institutions recently set out by the Vatican. McManus expressed disappointment that his suggestion that the school fly alternative flags that read “End Racism” or “We are all God’s children” was “apparently not considered.” The Catholic faith calls people to love each other and themselves with no regard for race or gender, McManus said in a statement. “That truth of the Catholic faith cannot be supplanted by any other social agenda,” he said. “Any division that exists [in the church] today is, in my mind, due to a lack of understanding by many Catholics of these basic principles of our faith.”  All well and good, but I disagree.

What are those guidelines?  They are provided in: “Instruction of the Congregation for Catholic Education: The identity of the Catholic school for a culture of dialogue” written by the Congregation for Catholic Education (Vatican City 2022).  The 29-page, complex document begins with: “As general criteria intended for the whole Church to safeguard ecclesial unity and communion, they will have to be further adapted to the different contexts of the local Churches scattered throughout the world according to the principle of subsidiarity and of the synodal path, according to the different institutional competences.”  Good start.  

It continued: “Only a strong and united action by the Church in the field of education in an increasingly fragmented and conflict-ridden world can contribute both to the evangelizing mission entrusted to her by Jesus and to the construction of a world in which human persons feel they are brothers and sisters (my emphasis), because ‘Only with this awareness of being children, that we are not orphans, can we live in peace among ourselves.’”  This statement starts me wondering about and questioning Bishop McManus’ wisdom regarding denying Mass and the sacraments within the school, an action all the students and the community have witnessed, and now the readership of the Globe with its front-page, above-the-fold, article, have learned.

It further states: “The Catholic school lives in the flow of human history. It is therefore continually called upon to follow its unfolding in order to offer an educational service appropriate to the present times. The witness of Catholic educational institutions shows on their part a great responsiveness to the diversity of socio-cultural situations and readiness to adopt new teaching methods, while remaining faithful to their own identity (idem esse). By identity we mean its reference to the Christian concept of life.” 

It continues: In addition to the above-mentioned characteristics which draw it apart from other ecclesial institutions such as the parish, associations, religious institutes, etc., a Catholic school is endowed with a specific identity: i.e. “its reference to a Christian concept of life centered on Jesus Christ”. The personal relationship with Christ enables the believer to look at the whole of reality in a radically new way, granting the Church an ever-renewed identity, with a view to fostering in the school communities’ adequate responses to the fundamental questions for every woman and man. Therefore, for all the members of the school community, the “principles of the Gospel in this manner become the educational norms since the school then has them as its internal motivation and final goal (my emphasis).

The document quotes the Pope: Pope Francis provided three fundamental guidelines to help dialogue, “the duty to respect one’s own identity and that of others, the courage to accept differences, and sincerity of intentions. The duty to respect one’s own identity and that of others, because true dialogue cannot be built on ambiguity or a willingness to sacrifice some good for the sake of pleasing others (my emphasis). The courage to accept differences, because those who are different, either culturally or religiously, should not be seen or treated as enemies, but rather welcomed as fellow-travellers, in the genuine conviction that the good of each resides in the good of all. Sincerity of intentions, because dialogue, as an authentic expression of our humanity, is not a strategy for achieving specific goals, but rather a path to truth, one that deserves to be undertaken patiently, in order to transform competition into cooperation…

Then again, and perhaps in defense of Bishop McManus’ decision, we read: A further responsibility of the school leadership is the promotion and protection of its ties with the Catholic community, which is realized through communion with the Church hierarchy. Indeed, the “ecclesial nature of Catholic schools, which is inscribed in the very heart of their identity as schools, is the reason for ‘the institutional link they keep with the Church hierarchy, which guarantees that the instruction and education be grounded in the principles of the Catholic faith and imparted by teachers of right doctrine and probity of life. Therefore, the school leadership has the right and the duty to intervene, always with appropriate, necessary and adequate measures, when teachers or pupils do not comply with the criteria required by the universal, particular or proper law of Catholic schools.

The document is a very hard read and, frankly, can be used any way the interpreter wants it to read.  I like Pope Francis’ guidelines making Bishop McManus’ decision questionable and hurtful, especially to the young students of Nativity (see photo).  Weaponizing the Mass and the sacraments to use them as punishments for flying two flags with great meaning and consistent with the Church's social teaching would not please Jesus, I suspect.  

Please read the Globe article to better understand what these children are taught in this Catholic School [now non-Catholic by orders of the Bishop].  Seriously?!

Deacon David Pierce